At the forum Australia’s prime minister John Howard, with the backing of New Zealand’s prime minister Helen Clark, pushed through a continuation of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI). Manasseh Sogavare, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, had proposed at the meeting to drastically reduce Australia’s dominant role in the so-called assistance mission.

RAMSI is an Australian-dominated intervention into the Solomon Islands set up in 2003 that includes hundreds of Australian troops, cops, and government officials. There is no timetable for their withdrawal. The stated goal of the intervention is to “restore law and order,” and to rebuild the “justice” and prison systems and reorganize government finances.

In mid-September Sogavare expelled Patrick Cole, the Australian High Commissioner to the Solomon Islands, accusing him of interfering in local politics.

In the lead-up to the gathering Howard declared that in return for “aid” the Australian government would continue to assert the right to determine “standards of governance” and “economic management” in the Pacific Island nations. The Australian rulers provide $A300 million [$A1 = US$.77] a year in budgetary “assistance” to Papua New Guinea, and claim to have spent $A800 million on RAMSI. As much as 90 percent of the Australian government’s $A2.1 billion “aid” program finds its way into the pockets of Australian businesses.

The trigger for the sharpening tensions between the Australian government and those of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea was the Howard administration’s opposition to the appointment of Julian Moti as Solomon Islands attorney-general. After Moti was nominated in June, Australian police in Vanuatu reopened charges against him—dismissed by the local courts 1999—that he had engaged in sexual relations with a minor. Australian authorities are now seeking to extradite Moti, a dual Australian-Solomon Islands citizen, to face charges in Australia.

Moti was arrested at the request of Australian authorities while visiting Papua New Guinea September 29. After being granted bail he sought help from the Solomon Islands High Commission and was subsequently flown to the Solomons in a Papuan New Guinea military aircraft.

In retaliation Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer barred Papua New Guinea prime minister Michael Somare and other ministers in his government from visiting Australia until Moti’s move was explained.

Australian police assigned to RAMSI arrested Moti October 10 in the Solomons, and charged him with entering the country without a valid passport.

On the eve of the October 24-25 meeting, Australian police in the Solomons, claiming to be investigating Moti, raided the offices of the prime minister, booting in the door and seizing a fax machine. They also arrested the Solomons minister of immigration, Peter Shanel, and charged him with “conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.”

The governments of the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Fiji “strongly condemned” the raid in a statement to the forum as “a serious violation of Solomon Islands’ territorial sovereignty and integrity.”

Somare condemned the “arrogant attitude” of the Australian government in “treating the people of the region with contempt.”

In recent years the Australian government has increased the number of its officials and advisors sent to Papua New Guinea, its former colony. Last year, however, it withdrew 115 cops from the country after the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court ruled that Australia’s demands for immunity from prosecution of its cops was unconstitutional. Over Somare’s objections, Howard recently cited an “inherently unstable situation in Papua New Guinea” as the main reason for a planned expansion of the Australian military and police.

In addition to the troops and cops in the Solomon Islands, there are 1,400 Australian troops in Iraq, 650 in Afghanistan, and 1,000 troops in Timor Leste (formerly East Timor).

On November 1 an Australian frigate set sail for Fiji in response to the Australian government’s fears of a military coup in that country. “Rapid Response” troops were also placed on alert, and a second warship dispatched, ostensibly to evacuate Australian citizens.  
 
 
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